Show us your recording space, right NOW

[jgimbel]

Normally more messy, but we're doing a big reorganization and I just got to expand by a few feet, so most things are in order:

[ott0bot]

This thread is great!

Here are a few random/blurry pics from a recent session:


in need of treatment and some decent monitors













Can't wait to build out my garage and have a real space, but for now the house will have to do!

[Jitters]

/\ Is that a 635a in the kick?

[jgimbel]

And two Summit Audio 2BA-221s? I'm jealous!

[ott0bot]

yep, and yep.

the 635a helped get a nice boom with a slow decay. The song needed a real soft boomy kick and it worked really nicely to compliment the re20's midrange.

I picked up the summits used for under 400 each. one needs the di jack repaired, but the sound great. Picked up a pair of tla-50's direct from summit too. Really want an eq from them, I love the summit gear.

[palinilap]

Wish I could say I've done some recording recently, but just been mixing my band's new EP.

[drumsound]

/\ Is that a 635a in the kick?

I'ma have to try that!

[mertmo]

Diggin that control room setup, palinilap. Nice!

[mertmo]

A.David.MacKinnon also, what a great looking setup!

I sense a theme with the Soundcraft Spirits.

And in that "spirit", I call you out *CHUCK FU ROCK* !!!!!

I know you have a freshly built squeaky new recording space, let's see it mang!!!!

[chuckfurok]

A.David.MacKinnon also, what a great looking setup!

I sense a theme with the Soundcraft Spirits.

And in that "spirit", I call you out *CHUCK FU ROCK* !!!!!

I know you have a freshly built squeaky new recording space, let's see it mang!!!!

Where's a pic of your squeaky new place, eh?

[ott0bot]

/\ Is that a 635a in the kick?

I'ma have to try that!

it worked quite well....i'll have to post some audio clips from the drums on that session. since I've already had a few comments on that.

The lack of proximity effect really helped capture the body of the kick without excessive low end, so I could just eq some in where/if needed. Since the re20 got sufficiant thump, the 635a filled in the gap nicely. On another song the 635a got used as a room mic about 3 feet in front the kit and I crushed it with an rnla. Really got a great, subtle cymbal sound in the room mic, and a nice dirty sound of the whole kit. I really love that mic for almost everything.

Also....the drummer is fantastic, and his kit was tuned up really nicely. That sure helped.

[palinilap]

Diggin that control room setup, palinilap. Nice!

Thanks man!

[vivalastblues]

To the people who have posted their studios - can you tell me where you've set them up? I'm about to move into a place and set up my own home studio for the first time, and I'm wondering if you've all soundproofed these places, or if you don't need it, or what. Thanks!

[vvv]

Mine being the first post, you can see that I had a custom, smell-absorbent bunker built, with extensive, interior personal decorating to accommodate almost all my greatest needs, i.e. a chair, a computer, amps, guitars and a place to crash (of course, the terlet and fridge are nearby) - that's why I callit my "bedio".

Heavy curtains over triple-glass winders help some, too.

[jgimbel]

My space is in the basement of our house, the house I grew up in. I started with a very small space, basically the size to fit a drumset, and slowly expanded after reorganizations of the basement and consolidation of all the junk down here that my family has collected. As of last week, the space is 23'x11'. It's what you'd consider less than ideal space as the walls are rough cement, not at all straight because it's a very old house (1903) and the whole house has a lot of parts that are slightly unlevel. I'm in one end of the basement, with one long cement wall and one short one. The other long "wall" of my space is made up of a couch and a mic locker, so it's not really a full wall. I'd say an important thing when setting up a space is to work with what you've got. I've always read a ton about what the right way to do things are as far as studio layout and things like that, but since my space doesn't have normal walls like a room and is a strange shape, I've had to just take bits and pieces of peoples' advice and use my own judgement. And it actually sounds really great down here. There's no treatment on the long cement wall at all, which amazingly doesn't cause any issues with reflections from cymbals, probably because there's no normal parallel wall to bounce against. Get into your space, set up how you think it should be, and be prepared to change your layout and add various kinds of treatment depending on what inadequacies of the room end up coming out. You can plan and plan, and it's good to care, but all spaces are different you'll have to treat the room individually.

Oh, and be creative. The space down here is pretty dry, and putting up drum room mics is always more of just a front-of-kit mic than a mic for room sound (which is fine, just a different use). I was recording acoustic guitar upstairs in the kitchen one day, mics going back to my interface down here, and played some drums down here and recorded it. That's when I realized that I could get a HUGE drum sound by having room mics one floor above my space. There isn't enough delay at all that I have to compensate for it since it's straight up from my space, but since it's through the floor it sounds like it's at the other end of a 50 foot room. So all of a sudden by an accident I found out I could get really excellent, exciting drum sounds rather than what I thought I was limited to down here.